The Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB) of the Po­lice Ser­vice cel­e­brat­ed 46 years as a unit yes­ter­day.

A state­ment by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) said its blue­print changed on Sep­tem­ber 8th 1976 when the Guard and Emer­gency Branch came on the scene.

"Since then, the GEB, which is the pre­mier unit of the TTPS for restor­ing pub­lic or­der, crowd con­trol and ri­ot sup­pres­sion, for­ev­er left an in­deli­ble mark on polic­ing op­er­a­tions," the state­ment said.

It not­ed that from the sup­pres­sion of the at­tempt­ed coup in 1990 to the re­cent pock­ets of dis­tur­bances that pop up from time to time in the coun­try, the GEB is al­ways on hand to en­sure the safe­ty of cit­i­zens and prop­er­ty.

"But, while we see them in their stel­lar and splen­dour, it does not come with­out self­less­ness, sac­ri­fice and self-sub­ju­ga­tion. The rigours of dai­ly, phys­i­cal train­ing and men­tal con­di­tion­ing ar­guably puts a GEB of­fi­cer in the en­vi­able po­si­tion of one of the elites. How­ev­er, un­der the tough­ness and mus­cle con­comi­tant with GEB of­fi­cers, they are usu­al­ly kind-heart­ed, down-to-earth, car­ing and com­mit­ted law en­force­ment per­son­nel, who just wants to see cit­i­zens safe and liv­ing in their truest po­ten­tial."

It not­ed that these at­trib­ut­es, ac­cord­ing to head of the GEB, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent (Ag.) Earl Elie, can some­times be con­fused for their “weak­ness­es” as the Branch’s po­lice of­fi­cers are faced with “dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions” in restor­ing peace while be­ing “em­path­ic and con­scious” of the plight of cit­i­zens who ever so of­ten are liv­ing through “hard times.”

He said this has re­shaped the ap­proach of the GEB which is now do­ing var­i­ous “be­hind the scenes” work with com­mu­ni­ties in help­ing to bridge these gaps and aid cit­i­zens through ob­sta­cles, a soft­er way.

“We have been do­ing a lot of work on the so­cial sides of polic­ing, in terms of reach­ing out to schools, re­cent­ly adopt­ing three which have been very touch­ing mo­ments. We see the joy on these chil­dren’s faces when we out­fit­ted them for school, pur­chas­ing school books and uni­forms and help­ing with get­ting their school grounds pre­pared for the up­com­ing term,” Snr Supt (Ag.) Elie said.

He added, “You know, it is re­al­ly a joy and sat­is­fac­tion when you look at a face light­ing up, a face of an un­for­tu­nate child where their eyes open wide and the smile on their face, when you give them some­thing which we con­sid­er as a ne­ces­si­ty but to them it is more than just that so that is a to­tal joy.”

As the Branch ap­proach­es five decades, he urged the law­men and women to “per­se­vere de­spite what can some­times be very daunt­ing ex­pe­ri­ences.”

“To my of­fi­cers, I know that with­in re­cent times we have been through dif­fi­cul­ties and neg­a­tive ex­pe­ri­ences on the job. From a pro­fes­sion­al point of view and com­ments from the pub­lic in terms of the GEB, and the ac­tion they would have tak­en, and I am sure that what­ev­er you would have done, you would have done it with a good heart and I want you to know your ef­forts are well-ap­pre­ci­at­ed by me, the Snr Supt, and by the Ex­ec­u­tive of the TTPS. Con­tin­ue learn­ing the job, con­tin­ue ed­u­cat­ing your­selves and giv­ing your time, con­cern, care and com­mit­ment to the pub­lic, in a pro­fes­sion­al and dy­nam­ic man­ner of course,” the team lead stressed.